Havas is using Cannes Lions to make the case that visibility is no longer enough. At the International Festival of Creativity, the Group has launched “The Science of Desire,” a new global study and strategic framework designed to help clients better understand the drivers of brand preference, loyalty, and growth.
The work builds on more than a decade of Havas’ Meaningful Brands research and marks a shift from measuring relevance to understanding what makes people actively choose one brand over another. It also further operationalizes the Group’s positioning: Growth, Powered by Desire.
In a market increasingly shaped by data, automation, and AI-driven discovery, Havas argues that brands cannot rely on visibility alone. They need stronger reasons to be chosen, and to keep being chosen over time.
Based on insights from more than 87,500 respondents, more than 2,400 brands across 10 markets, and 1,000 AI-powered interviews, “The Science of Desire” explores how desire has become a critical driver of growth.
The study identifies three interconnected drivers of desire: attraction, affinity, and attachment. Together, Havas says, those drivers form a reinforcing loop that compounds over time.
According to the study, brands that build desire significantly outperform. They deliver 2.2 times more fame, 87 percent more pricing power, and 2.4 times more sustained growth.
The findings also suggest that desire matters in AI-driven environments. Havas says desirable brands are significantly more likely to surface in AI responses, with up to a four times higher likelihood of being cited.
Yet the study also points to what Havas calls a widespread “desire deficit.” According to the research, 84 percent of brands sit in a middle ground of indifference, achieving just 61 percent of their potential.
“At Havas, we believe growth starts with what truly moves people,” said Yannick Bolloré, chairman and CEO of Havas. “In today’s AI-driven landscape, the most successful brands will be those that combine technological power with deep human understanding and creativity to build lasting connections.”
Bolloré said The Science of Desire and the continued evolution of Havas’ Converged.AI ecosystem are designed to help clients unlock stronger, more sustainable growth.
Mark Sinnock, global chief strategy, data, and innovation officer at Havas Creative Network, framed the idea more directly.
“Being seen is not enough. You must be desired,” Sinnock said. “In a world where optimization is increasingly automated, creativity is what creates connection, builds desire, and drives growth. Technology may amplify brands, but desire gives them gravity.”
Joanna Lawrence, global chief strategy officer at Havas Media Network, said the model connects desire directly to repeat choice. “When brands are actively chosen by more people, spending more, not just once but repeatedly over time, that’s when growth happens.”
To bring the framework into action, Havas is advancing the next phase of its Converged.AI ecosystem.
As part of that evolution, the company has increased its investment in Vurvey Labs, a next-generation agentic intelligence scale-up, and will act as lead investor in its Series B funding round. The investment is part of Havas’ previously announced plan to invest 400 million euros in data, technology, and AI through 2027.
Vurvey is built on a proprietary “people model” trained on millions of real consumer interviews conducted through AI agents. The company generates synthetic audiences designed to reflect real human behaviors, allowing brands to test products, messaging, and campaigns before going to market.
Chad Reynolds, founder and CEO of Vurvey Labs, said the ambition is to help organizations move beyond static snapshots of audiences. “From the beginning, we believed there was a missing layer in AI: a true understanding of people in motion,” Reynolds noted. “At Vurvey, we are building the world’s leading human AI company, helping organizations better anticipate how people think, feel and make decisions.”
Havas is also advancing additional elements of Converged.AI, including a strategic partnership with Akkio, an AI powered infrastructure platform for media agencies. The partnership is designed to accelerate the agentic layer of Converged.AI, allowing teams to model scenarios faster, analyze more granular data, and surface decisions where human judgment matters most.
The Group is also expanding Vermeer.ai, its proprietary generative AI production solution developed by Prose on Pixels. Since launching in 2025, Vermeer.ai has evolved into a flexible, technology-agnostic creative ecosystem designed to help teams deliver high-quality, audience-first content at scale while maintaining craft and control.
Havas is also scaling AVA, its secure AI platform that gives the Group’s 23,000 employees access to large language models while retaining context and continuity across workflows. Built on an agentic foundation developed by Ekino, AVA is designed to support workflow orchestration, upskilling, and higher-value strategic work.
Dan Hagen, global chief data and technology officer at Havas, said the opportunity is not simply to use AI for efficiency, but to connect insight, data, and decision-making more intelligently. “By combining human judgment with intelligent systems, we enable our clients to scale relevance, enhance creativity and build more relevant, desirable brand experiences.”
With “The Science of Desire,” Havas is positioning desire as both an emotional force and a measurable growth system. The Cannes launch gives the Group a timely platform for a larger argument: as AI makes the marketing ecosystem faster, more automated, and more crowded, the brands that win will not just be the ones people see.
They will be the ones people want.
Download ‘The Science of Desire’ here.
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